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Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities

What Kind Of Is-Ought Gap Is There And What Kind Ought There Be?, P.D. Magnus, Jon Mandle Aug 2017

What Kind Of Is-Ought Gap Is There And What Kind Ought There Be?, P.D. Magnus, Jon Mandle

Philosophy Faculty Scholarship

Some philosophers think that there is a gap between is and ought which necessarily makes normative enquiry a different kind of thing than empirical science. This position gains support from our ability to explicate our inferential practices in a way that makes it impermissible to move from descriptive premises to a normative conclusion. But we can also explicate them in a way that allows such moves. So there is no categorical answer as to whether there is or is not a gap. The question of an is-ought gap is a practical and strategic matter rather than a logical one, and …


Returning To Reality: Christian Platonism For Our Times, Paul Tyson, Derek A. Michaud Jul 2017

Returning To Reality: Christian Platonism For Our Times, Paul Tyson, Derek A. Michaud

Philosophy Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.


Natural Philosophy, Geometry, And Deduction In The Hobbes-Boyle Debate, Marcus P. Adams Jan 2017

Natural Philosophy, Geometry, And Deduction In The Hobbes-Boyle Debate, Marcus P. Adams

Philosophy Faculty Scholarship

This paper examines Hobbes’s criticisms of Robert Boyle’s air-pump experiments in light of Hobbes’s account in De Corpore and De Homine of the relationship of natural philosophy to geometry. I argue that Hobbes’s criticisms rely upon his understanding of what counts as “true physics.” Instead of seeing Hobbes as defending natural philosophy as “a causal enterprise ... [that] as such, secured total and irrevocable assent,”2 I argue that, in his disagreement with Boyle, Hobbes relied upon his understanding of natural philosophy as a mixed mathematical science. In a mixed mathematical science one can mix facts from experience (the ‘that’) with …